Dwill817's 1981 Toyota Pickup 4x4

Current Picture:


Specs:

1981 Toyota Pickup 4x4

Plans:
-OME suspension
-33x12.5
-Regear to 4.56s with lockers.
-Hysteer
-Davez Offroad front bumper + Smittybuilt XRC8 winch.
-4.7 T-case.
-Half doors.
-Dual Fuel Propane or 3rz swap.
-And a whole lot of small ideas.

 

Old school baby! Nice rig! Great start!
Thanks for sharing. I had an 89 and miss that truck. First tacoma!

Nice change of builds from 2nd gen " overload"...

Az

 

Thanks!

Don't get me wrong I love both gens of Tacomas. But my heart has longed for a first gen pickup for quite awhile.

I'm keeping a budget because I would love to have it fixed up and still be under what I could have bought a single cab Tacoma for with the same miles. So my goal is to be done at around $7000. That'll take me a few years but it's a slow process anyways.

 

I'll have some updates tonight btw

 

sweet! I just got an 82' as a "trail king" so i imagine our builds will be quite different. looks damn good my man!

 

ChamYota: Thanks! It needs some work but it's pretty clean to be so old. It looks much better without that god awful plastic bed liner. Mine will be wheeled but it is my daily transportation so it can't be too extreme.

I'm about to get started on changing all the seals and I'm gonna drop the rear bumper. It catches on everything.

 

Good looking truck man
I love seeing the older trucks being brought back to life.

 

Just finished up working on it. Got the water pump changed and front main seal replaced, new antifreeze, oil & filter change, and a new air filter.

I also took off the rear bumper. It's helped so much with the deprouch(sp) angle. I'll get some pics of it in the morning.

 

Awesome. I love the old Toyota pickups.

 

I highly approve of this thread and can't wait to it see progress!

 

Sick! so happy you posted this, Sub'd for being too damn cool... Good luck on your build!!!

 

Man, i love this era of the trucks. I can't wait to see what you do with this truck!

 

Complimentary poser shot:

Well I've got the truck where I feel it is running 100% mechanical wise. I'm gonna put new spark plugs and a fuel filter in the morning for the heck of it. After that i'm going to start working on the lighting problems. I stopped and bought some lights tonight but didn't feel like putting them in tonight. After I get all that settled, I'm moving on to some tires and possibly a small lift.
Got some kinda bad news. I was taking my friend offroad today at the local ORV park and got my first bit of trail damage. I was headed up a steep rock section that was kinda a tight squeeze and the front drivers side just bumped into a small tree. It not too bad but it left a few dings on the fender. I'm gonna try and push some of them out tomorrow.

 

Got a price from a local guy that does paint and body. He's the type that's not trying to get rich just pay his bills and have a little bit left. He's also very good from what I've seen and heard. It'll be $1500 to fix every bit of damage and rust and to re-paint including the door jams and everything.

Edit: It'll be awhile before I get it painted. It'll probably be the last thing I do actually.

 

Updates?!!

 

Sorry I havent updated. I removed those ugly ole stripes off the sides and added some lights to the front bumper.

I had to fix some wiring problems but I got it all sorted out and its been doing great! I've put almost 5k on it since I got it in October.

I also have started ordering my Old Man Emu suspension. The front springs are on their way already! Im super excited! I'll get some update pics on here

 

Nice truck!!!!

Which OME springs did you get? The 2in ones?

OME makes great leaf springs.
For the back just find some junk yard yota leafs and add one or two leafs.
This will be cheap and easy.

also yota tech has a great pre 84 section over on there site. Lots of good info.

 

I got the 79-85 light load OME front springs. For the back I'm gonna be running OME leafs for a 89-95 pickup. Because they are a lift spring the 79-85 rears wind up being slightly shorter eye-to-eye than stock and cause a terrible shackle angle, but the leafs for a 89-95 are almost 3" longer stock and because they're lifted it makes them the perfect eye-to-eye length for the rear of my truck. Get what I'm saying?

I'm on yotatech. There's a lot of information over there but for some reason its just not that active of a board and a lot of the threads are kind of irrelevant to be honest. I like ExPo, TW, and the MarlinCrawler forum.

Im waiting on my next paycheck so I can order something else. Lol

 

Nice truck! Sometimes I wish I had gotten an older more simple one, less.complications

 

Thanks! It is less complicated most of the time! Being an older truck there is always more quirks and preventative maintenance is kinda always in the back of your mind. Its like: Do I rebuild the axles or buy a lift? Lol But its well worth it for me.